Former president of AMPTP Nick Counter passes away

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Nick Counter, the former president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers, died Friday. Counter led the Alliance for 27 years.

The Stanford-trained lawyer worked 10 years as outside legal counsel for the Association of Motion Picture and TV Producers. In 1982, the Association became an Alliance, and Counter was named president. He retired from the job 8 months ago.

The Alliance represents studios, broadcast networks, some cable networks, and independent producers in their contract talks with almost all of Hollywood’s guilds and unions. In a town in which dealmaking is key, Nick Counter was the Alliance’s chief negotiator on more than 300 big ones. He gets credit for helping Hollywood’s management accomplish something its guilds have often struggled with: presenting a united front.

Counter also was a trustee on 14 of the guild and union health and pension funds. Nick Counter died Friday after he collapsed at his Los Angeles home earlier in the week. He was 69 years old.